Poker in Honduras: a casino law written for foreign tourists, and what Hondurans can play

Honduras has something Guatemala and El Salvador lack: an actual casino statute, licensed by the executive and still on the books. It also has the single most unusual provision we have read in any poker market — a reformed article that bars casinos from admitting anyone who cannot prove, with a passport, that they are a foreigner. If you live in Honduras, that one sentence shapes your whole live-poker picture, and almost nothing written in English about the country mentions it.

Poker is treated here as a recreational, skill-based card game. It is entertainment, not an income and not a way out of a financial problem.

Is poker legal in Honduras?

Casino gaming is licensed. The governing statute is the Ley de Casinos de Juegos de Envite o Azar, Decreto No. 488 of 8 July 1977, published in La Gaceta No. 22247 on 16 July 1977, which we read in the copy published by the Tribunal Superior de Cuentas on 28 October 2026. Several decrees have since amended it.

Article 2 defines the games the law covers: "los juegos de ruleta, dados, barajas, punto y banca, bacara, maquinas tragamonedas y otros similares". Poker is not named. It falls, if at all, under barajas — card games — or the catch-all otros similares, and nothing in the statute distinguishes a player-versus-player game from a card game dealt against the house.

Licences are granted by the Poder Ejecutivo through the tourism secretariat (article 3), run for up to 25 years and are extendable in five-year periods from the start of operations (article 4). To qualify, article 3(a) requires the operation to sit inside a first-category tourism establishment with fixed investment above one million lempiras. Game inspectors are appointed by the same secretary (article 10); supervision of players falls to the interior and justice secretariat under article 12 as amended by Decreto 76-90; tax investigation sits with the Direccion General de Tributacion (article 9). Decreto Ejecutivo 70-92 bans unlicensed gambling houses nationwide.

None of this is legal advice — it is a reading of the published statute, offered as general information.

The provision that matters most: casinos are for foreign tourists

Article 6, as reformed by Decreto 76-90, states its purpose and its restriction in one breath: "La finalidad de los Casinos de Juegos de Envite o Azar, es la promocion del turismo extranjero, por lo tanto queda terminantemente prohibido admitir como jugadores a dichos centros, a quienes no acrediten mediante la presentacion de su pasaporte, la calidad de extranjeros."

In plain terms: a licensed Honduran casino is forbidden to admit a player who cannot show a passport establishing foreign nationality. The sanction is on the venue, not the player — a fine of 50,000 lempiras for a first breach, and immediate and permanent cancellation of the operating licence on a repeat.

Two things follow. First, a Honduran resident has no lawful route into a licensed casino poker game in their own country, however the floor is run in practice. Second, the earlier minimum age of 21, introduced into article 6 by Decreto 100-88, was swept away when Decreto 76-90 replaced the whole article; the current text sets no age limit at all. We say that as a reading of the document rather than as settled law, because an age rule may well live in another instrument we have not read.

What the casinos pay

Article 8, as amended by Decreto 101-88, requires an operator to pay whichever is greater of 700,000 lempiras a year, in monthly instalments, or 20 per cent of gross income after prizes paid. In insular zones the floor drops to 300,000 lempiras against the same 20 per cent. Article 14 grants a one-off import-duty exemption on furnishings and equipment not made in the country. The statute says nothing about taxing players' winnings.

Live poker in Honduras

We hold no verified player-versus-player poker room in Honduras. Casino floors operate in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula and appear in industry directories, but we could not find a Honduran venue publishing its own game list, table count or tournament calendar, and the foreigners-only rule means that even a confirmed poker table would not be open to residents. Dealer-banked card games are common on Central American floors and are not poker in the tournament sense. Until a venue's own page can be read, Honduras's live poker offer is unverified, and for Hondurans themselves it is legally closed.

Playing online from Honduras

The 1977 casino law predates the internet and addresses physical establishments. There is no Honduran online-poker licence, so Hondurans who play online play on internationally licensed rooms, with whatever protection the foreign regulator provides and no local authority to escalate to.

WPT Global is the room we list first for Honduras. We re-read its terms and conditions on 28 October 2026 and Honduras appears nowhere in its Excluded Territories list, so Honduran players can register. Where a welcome offer is mentioned, remember that offers of this kind release in stages as rake is generated, and only the released part can be withdrawn.

Sources read for this page

Tribunal Superior de Cuentas (tsc.gob.hn), Ley de Casinos de Juegos de Envite o Azar, Decreto 488 of 1977 with the amendments by Decretos 100-88, 101-88, 76-90 and Decreto Ejecutivo 70-92 — articles 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12 and 14 read directly on 28 October 2026; WPT Global terms and conditions, Excluded Territories list (read 28 October 2026).